Ramp meters will be turned on along southbound I-280 on Wednesday

Metering lights will be turned on Wednesday along Interstate 280 through downtown San Jose for the afternoon commute, the first of hundreds of ramp lights that will go live all over the Bay Area in the next few years.

Metering is one of the state's favorite tools to combat mounting traffic delays on local freeways. While some drivers fuss over waiting several minutes at an onramp, others say meters are badly needed and back up Caltrans claims that overall delays decline and roads become more comfortable to navigate.

"The metering lights seem to have slightly reduced the 880 delay," said Peter Ross of San Jose, referring to lights that were turned on nearly two years ago. "But more importantly, they have made it much safer for me to get on Montague Expressway and then to move over several lanes to avoid the congestion of cars exiting onto 101. I've become a fan of them."

Caltrans has turned on 89 ramp meters in the past year, and meters could be working on 323 more by 2016. That would nearly double the number of metered ramps in the Bay Area to 650.

Traffic engineers estimate that the I-280 meters will reduce delays during the afternoon by nearly 6 percent, or more than half a minute per vehicle. That may not seem like much improvement for one driver, but multiply that 30 seconds by thousands of motorists who commute on 280, and the time saved is significant.

Still, not everyone is happy.

Phil Alfonso says his Highway 87 to 85 drive improved earlier this year when copper thefts darkened the meters at the connector ramp.

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"Guess what?" he said. "Traffic moved so much better in that area without the metering lights. All those devices seem to do is move traffic from one location to another."

But there are other factors to consider. When one meter is not operating, meters at nearby ramps are often slowed, and drivers there sometimes have longer waits.

Meters can also reduce crashes, as merging becomes smoother when just one or two cars enter the freeway at a time instead of dozens. For each minute that a crash remains on a freeway, delays of up to three minutes result.

The South Bay is one of the strongest advocates of metering signals, with more than 80 percent of the freeway ramps in San Jose now metered. That's the highest concentration of metered ramps in the Bay Area.

"We are very pleased that Caltrans is completing the project to retrofit southbound I-280 with ramp meters," said Hans Larsen, head of San Jose's Department of Transportation. "This will help relieve the severe daily congestion we have in the Meridian Avenue area along 280, one of the worst congestion hot spots in Silicon Valley."

But a bigger impact may come this fall, when the northbound 280 lights begin working.

"I'm sure this will help, but the real slowdown is the morning drive on north 280 between 101 and Foothill Expressway," said KLIV traffic monitor John McLeod. "That long stretch is slow every morning."

Speeds southbound now hit 45 mph on many days, pretty good for the afternoon commute, said McLeod. But the morning is a tougher beast. Last Tuesday, traffic was inching along as low as 11 mph on 280.

The bill to add 15 meters along 280 is $5.5 million. Adding a lane in each direction from Highway 101 to 880 could cost as much as $20 million.

Other regions are getting on board. A total of 131 more ramps will be metered in the next few years in Alameda and Contra Costa counties.

"How about getting Caltrans to meter 238 to 880 south, since between 238 and 92, it normally goes from slow to parking lot?" asked Jim Matthews, of Alameda. "The metering lights are there to use."

There are no plans to do so anytime soon. Caltrans traffic engineer Alan Chow says to turn on that meter would result in unacceptable delays on 238.

"The entrance to southbound 880 is only one lane, which geometrically meters the traffic, and we will keep it this way for the time being," he said.